Lucca

Encircled by a complete 16th-17th century wall roughly in the shape of a potato, the historic city of Lucca is wedged into a basin at the foot of the Apuan Alps on the bank of the Serchio. There are evidences of Lucca’s existence during the Stone Age, but it was the Romans who made the city’s foundations, which gave the city its regular street plan and the peculiarly developed Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, a public square that was built upon the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. It is no coincidence that Lucca has the appearance of a once wealthy city. It experienced a period of economic power during the 12th and 13th centuries with significant silk trade and banking activities, evident by the existence of elaborate Romanesque churches as well as the towers and tower houses that were popular with the prominent families of the time.

I arrived by train from Pisa, a journey that took a little over 30 minutes through a varied landscape that snaked along a narrow valley following the flow of the Serchio. Emerging from Lucca station, I am greeted with the sight of Lucca’s famous city wall, which was designed by Leonardo da Vinci, integrating three previous fortifications.

To enter the historical centre, I follow the chaos of the traffic through Porta San Pietro, passing a giant statue of Garibaldi. After dropping off my luggage at the very elegant Albergo alla Corte degli Angeli in the northern end of the city, I join the walkers and cyclists on the four-kilometre circular, tree lined promenade atop the city wall to orientate myself with the layout of the city. It is mid-morning and the warm Tuscan sun saturates the colours of the ochre bricks, contrasting the lush green of the pine, lime, ilex and chestnut trees, originally planted to stabilise the soil